My name is Greg Mitchell. I’m a screenwriter and novelist, family man, hunter of vampires. Well, okay, maybe not that last one—yet! I’m also the writer of The Coming Evil Trilogy. The first two installments—The Strange Man and Enemies of the Cross—are in stores now from Realms Fiction. The trilogy is really my dream project as it combines my two favorite passions: monster movies and overcoming adversity in the Christian life.

2) What's your new book about?

My latest release, Rift Jump, will be out in July through Splashdown Darkwater. Rift Jump is a crazy sci-fi love story about an angry youth named Michael Morrison who has been given incredible powers and travels an infinite possibility of alternate dimensions and alien worlds, kicking down doors and waging war on evil beings. It’s a violent, but simple, existence that is only complicated when he meets Sara Theresea, a shy young woman who has lost all hope in her life. Michael saves Sara and she decides to follow him on his journey through the multiverse. Even as they form a fast friendship and fall recklessly in love, Michael discovers that the Beast in the dark void “In-Between” worlds has plans for all that rage in his heart. The question then becomes, will Sara’s love be enough to turn him from the darkness within before he is entirely consumed?

3) Where did you get the idea for this book?

Rift Jump actually began as a story I wrote way back in high school. I had this incredibly vivid and intense dream where I was Michael, traveling to parallel worlds. I met a girl named Sara and rescued her from an abusive situation and she declared her love for me. Naturally, as a lovelorn teenager at the time, I woke up with this sense of sadness—I wanted to go back into the dream and return to Sara. I wrote the dream down immediately and turned it in for a grade to my Creative Writing class. The teacher was mildly impressed (probably that I had done the assignment at all) and I started writing more Michael and Sara adventures soon after that. I abandoned that world for many, many years after graduation, but last year it struck me that there was a lot of neat—if not immature—ideas in those old stories. So I gave them a complete overhaul and now it’s nearing its worldwide release date! Crazy how life works out sometimes.

4) Is this a series?

Yes and no, if that makes any sense. I wrote many Rift Jump stories back in the day, and wanted to update all the main ones in the “canon”. Half of them are in this release—forming a sort of braided novel—and I intend on finishing out one more book to contain the others. Rift Jump is very much Michael’s personal journey, while its sequel is a companion piece and focuses on Sara and her arc in all of this. But, after that, their story is told. Of course, in the multiverse, there is always room for more stories, but I have none planned after the sequel. But never say never. Maybe another story will demand to be told one day. So, while there is a sequel to Rift Jump already in the works, in my mind, it stops there.

5) I hear you’re writing a movie. Tell us about it.

Yes I am! I wrote the first few drafts of a movie called Amazing Love: The Story of Hosea. That’s a project that I’ve been involved with for years. Getting a movie greenlit and funded can often be a long process. In many ways, it is a huge departure for me. There are no monsters in it, no epic last stands between good and evil, nothing blows up. Instead, it’s a powerful tale of the Old Testament prophet Hosea. The movie is the brain child of me and Christian filmmaker Rich Christiano (who I worked with on the novelization for his film Time Changer back in 2001). Five or six years ago, we were talking about writing a Biblical movie, but wanted to pick someone really obscure. I have always been moved by the incredible love story found in Hosea, so I suggested that. Then we came up with a framing device for the film, where we see a modern day church youth group go on a camping trip. They’ve got their little internal dramas and their youth leader—played by Sean Astin from The Lord of the Rings films!—tells them the story of Hosea by campfire light. The movie cuts back and forth from modern day to Biblical times. I’m excited to say that all the Hosea segments were actually filmed in Israel. Ironically enough, I’ve not seen the movie yet, so it’ll be very interesting to see how much of my script was used and how much got reworked throughout the production and post-production process. Movies pass through a lot of hands and nearly everyone gets a say. It’s like a giant game of telephone, and sometimes the end result is very different than what you started out with. But, while I wasn’t able to be there for the filming, Rich—who served as producer—has kept me informed on the process, and the footage I’ve seen looks pretty neat. That’s due out on DVD this fall, I believe, but throughout the summer, it’s exclusively available to show at churches. Here’s the link for more information on bringing this movie to your city!

6) What else are you working on?

I am crazy-busy over here. I’ve finished Dark Hour, the third and final book in The Coming Evil Trilogy, so I’m waiting on pins and needles for the edits on that one. If all goes according to plan, that’ll be out early next year. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about that book. Everything has been building up to it for over a decade. That series is a dream come true, and I’m sure there will be much tears and a big ice cream party once the final book is in stores. After that, I’m working on the aforementioned Rift Jump sequel. I’m trudging through my first draft on the recently announced unofficial guide to the Back to the Future timeline through Hasslein Books. I have a Bigfoot short story (that has ties to Rift Jump, if you look carefully) coming out in a Coscom Entertainment anthology. I’m writing two more novels—both adapted from early ideas, like Rift Jump—that should wrap up my nostalgic trip down Memory Lane and free me up to concentrate on the future :p And, it’s just been announced that I’ll be writing an installment in Frank Creed’s groundbreaking Underground series of “Biblical Cyberpunk” novels. That one’s still in the early planning stages, but I’m really excited about that. On top of all of everything, I’m readying to shop around a monster comic book to mainstream editors and I’m working with a production company, trying to cook up some fun monster B-movies. I’m very busy!

7) Where can people find you?

Wallowing in stress and self-doubt. But on my better days, I hang out over at my website. There you can stay updated on all my shenanigans and learn more about The Coming Evil Trilogy. There are links to interviews, reviews, all my social media profiles, and a number of free-to-read internet exclusive short stories that build up the world of The Coming Evil. Swing by and say “hi”!

"Wallowing in stress and self-doubt." Yea, I can relate to that! Artists and writers all have that sort of dysfunction to them!It's cool that you have brought about an attention to many aspiring writers who write about many different types of material stories. Many I have never heard of before till you posted these questions on your LJ Blog, HH! =)

Time Changer is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The soapbox moments are excessive, the movie is preachy to the extreme, and the joke about the rapture near the end of the film is a slap in the face of everything the movie was about. The message I walked away with was: We need to reclaim our morality, Christians should pray before harassing strangers door to door, and Clarke's Third Law indicates that what we think of as the rapture is actually lightning and stuff from the guy's time machine.The Hosea movie promises to be another cinematic turd. I mean, right off the bat, from the picture, I see a guy with glasses below the bible hero, like the guy with glasses is going to build a time machine in order to passively listen to Hosea giving a two hour speech...As I read further along in this post, I see that it is a "campfire story" type of thing. Even worse. The only way to save that particular framing device is by forging some seriously good drama between the campers.I suspect it will be like some of those Adventures in Odyssey stories where the two kids are fighting over a toy, and grandpa breaks up the fight and sits them down with a couple chocolate malts as he lectures them on David and Goliath. That's not drama.